More than I bargained for
More than I bargained for… It seemed a bit strange for an elf, a half-elf and a Halfling to approach ‘ol Admiral Whicker wanting to charter my ship for an ‘expedition’ to the sunken land of Laara’Tal. Their coin was good, and I needed the work. Sounded easy enough, just a simple trip there and back, even negotiated a cut of the treasure if they found any, but most came back empty handed. Done it a dozen times. We set sail the next morning with fair seas and a strong wind at our backs. Two days in and the trip south was going smoothly. Nice and quiet, except for that talkity half-elf woman who insisted she was just a human. I know better, but she was determined to convince me. Repeatedly. Persistently. She almost had me swayed when we saw the floating city of those damned Elf Sorcerers of the Dark Whatnot. That elf girl knew way more about them than a she should. I'm gonna keep my eye on that one. That night, a strong squall gave us a scare, but my boys made sure we rode it out with no losses. That poor girl must be scared of lightning, holding on to the Halfling all night as if the storm was gonna eat her. Sure enough, she was back to her relentless chatting the next morning. I was almost glad we found that wreck the next day, to give her something else to focus on. The Sea Star must have run aground by the storm, pushed onto some rocks or coral reef. Pretty bad too. The ship was split nearly in half, held up only by the reef. No survivors either. We could see ‘em on the deck and in the water. The 2 treasure hunters’ greed got the best of them, so they headed over to plunder. The girl pussy-footed around talking about demons and hiding behind my crew. I was more interested in salvage. They poked around for bit, not finding much, until the water grabbed at the elf. The water itself! An elemental the girl called it. “Living water.” Sounded unnatural. Then another appeared and pushed the elf overboard. He tried to grab ahold of the railing with his whip, but the water things kept pushing him around. Me and the crew was about to lend a hand, but some water demon surprised us with a nasty cloud on our own boat. It stung our eyes and noses and made it hard to see. This admiral wasn’t about to let that thing push my boys around, so I let him have it. It was a squirrely little bastard, but that took out my 3 crewmen before I could put him down. Paid good money for those men, and some of them I had grown to like. By then, the other 3 had taken care of the water monsters. They rummaged through the rest of the Sea Star and helped me salvage some wood, sail, and other supplies for my own ship. I was more than glad to put my rudder to that wreck and see it disappear over the horizon. As luck would have it, they managed to find a map of two islands about where we’re going. It seemed promising enough, but I was mistaken… When we anchored and headed for shore in the skiff, something huge attacked the Mayfly. She couldn’t take much before going down into the drink. I’ll find that thing, and I’ll cut it for fish bait, I swear it! For now I’m stuck with these three on some strange island with only a sketchy map and far-fetched dreams of treasure. I didn’t get paid enough for this crap… -Admiral Whicker of The Mayfly ''